Governor Needs to Aid Migrants

The images of men, women and children living in cardboard and tarp-covered hooches with no running water or toilet facilities have faded somewhat from the public eye.

Earlier this year when county health officials were forcing landowners to dismantle the makeshift migrant camps in the canyons and hillsides of North County, pictures of the migrants’ plight were plentiful in the media. San Diegans were frequently forced to face a long-ignored problem.

The reminders are fewer, now that some of the camps have been closed. But the problem has not lessened. Perhaps as many as 15,000 migrants, most of whom are now legal residents, remain homeless, according to some estimates. That’s three times the size of the county’s non-migrant homeless population.

We hope Gov. George Deukmejian will remember this and look back at the newspaper and television accounts of the camps as he is deciding whether to approve $500,000 in seed money for migrant worker housing for San Diego County.

It would be the first state money for migrant housing San Diego County has received, despite the fact that the county ranks 12th in California in volume of agricultural products. Why the county is so far behind in building migrant worker housing is difficult to pin down and varies depending on whom you talk to: The state rules are too restrictive, the land is not available or there has been little local support. This last reason was cited by Deukmejian last year when he vetoed a similar $500,000 budget item.

Whether or not that was the real reason for the veto, there is some truth to the accusation. Local officials have never applied for state money. Migrant housing has not been a priority.

But that has begun to change, in part because so many of the migrants are now legal residents--more than two-thirds, according to the U. S. Border Patrol--under the amnesty program. Farmers and growers are worrying that they may lose newly legal workers to less backbreaking jobs, and they see housing as a possible way to keep workers in agriculture.

Also fueling the interest have been complaints about the health risks posed by makeshift migrant camps and the decision by county health officials to close many of the camps.

This prompted Assemblyman Robert Frazee (R-Carlsbad) to put together a broad-based working group of government and community leaders to look for ways to provide housing and to marshal the support necessary to persuade the governor to approve this year’s budget request. Group members see some progress, but little can be accomplished without money.

The $500,000 that Frazee has shepherded through the Legislature won’t shelter many people. But with the 25% required match from local government and money from federal and private sources, housing officials think the $500,000 can be leveraged into as much as $3 million.

Even that will not go far. But it’s a start.

What’s needed now is a show of local support, one too strong for the governor to ignore. Five members of the county’s legislative delegation have co-authored Frazee’s bill, and the county and the cities of Carlsbad, Encinitas and Oceanside have formally endorsed the funding request. Resolutions are pending in a couple of other cities.

The show of support should be unanimous. It’s time to remember the faces of the migrants living in the brush and to put an end to years of neglect.